US opens criminal investigation into oil spill

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, June 2 (AFP) – US authorities said they opened a criminal probe into the nation’s worst ever oil spill as BP voiced hopes of capping the six-week-old Gulf of Mexico leak soon. The scope of the disaster widened as authorities closed more water in the Gulf of Mexico to fishing and said areas near the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi were fouled. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration said it was expanding its fishing ban “to capture portions of the slick moving into waters off eastern Alabama and the western tip of the Florida panhandle, as well as some large patches of sheen moving onto the west Florida shelf and southward to Cuban waters.” The action leaves 68 percent of waters open. In New Orleans, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters his office “will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who has violated the law.” Holder said the criminal probe began “some weeks ago” but declined to elaborate on what kind of charges could be brought and against whom. The top US law enforcement official was speaking after touring the region to witness the damage caused by the spill, triggered when an explosion ripped through the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, sinking it two days later. “What we saw this morning was oil for miles and miles. Oil that we know has already affected plant and animal life along the coast, and has impacted the lives and livelihoods of all too many…